Mental Mother just told me this yesterday. She was handing out candy for trick-or-treating this year. The doorbell rang as per usual and Mental Mother opened the door only to find two adults standing there, not in costume. As she looked them over, it became apparent to her that there was a baby in a sling across the mother's chest. Mental Mother asked to see the little one in her costume, except that the 1 month old only had a spot of black on her nose. Yes, a 1 month old.

Perhaps the baby was cute, but the fact remains that a one-month-old is not going to be ingesting anything that would be given out for Hallowe'en. It's for the greedy parents, pure and simple. If they wanted candy that badly, presumably they could have gone to the store and bought themselves some. The baby won't have a clue.

I still remember the first Hallowe'en after DS was born. He was eight months old and barely crawling--certainly not walking yet. People kept asking my husband what our son was going to "be" for Hallowe'en. He came up with the most brilliant answer I have ever heard--"Asleep".

My son was five months old when his first Halloween rolled around. I dressed him up in a monkey costume and took him to see grandparents.

I don't think there's anything wrong with participating in a little of the fun of Halloween as your little ones can. But I do agree door to door trick or treating with one too little does go a bit too far.

Did anyone see The Office episode where Dwight thought that a Silent Auction was "whoever guesses the best price match wins the item."?So he called the stores and got the prices, and "won" every item. There was little to no follow up on how he paid several thousand dollars, nor what he did with all the items and services...

The grandma could always offer to buy it off the winning bidder for a higher price, or at least give her number in case some parts were missing, and she was willing to pay for shipping and orders and repairs.

Oh well...

Live auction, who would not realize that you have to be there to bid and win?!?

Similar scenario was depicted about a decade ago on Friends - Joey thinks it's the "best guess" that wins at the Silent Auction at a charity event, and ends up buying an expensive boat he can't afford. So the not understanding a silent auction process gag seems to be a recurring one!

But yep, a regular live auction? I'd feel a bit silly if I missed the item I had my heart set on, but I certainly wouldn't make a fuss and suggest they should resell it to me instead of the actual successful buyer. That's pretty funny.

I saw this on Yahoo - they asked people to submit stories about how the recent political election divided their families. I don't want to link to the story because I don't want to even suggest that this is a red vs blue issue - this was just a very SS daughter. So, to summarize the story:Daughter (who is the one telling the story) finds out her parents have put up a very large sign on their yard supporting the other candidate. She makes a big deal of them not telling her during their regular phone conversations and when she finally confronts them, the mother is "ashamed" and tries to justify it because there is another large sign for daughter's candidate across the street. Daughter then informs mother that as long as the sign is up, she will not visit them (keep in mind that she never saw the sign because she hadn't visited in all that time, so it doesn't strike me that she regularly visits them). In the end, the sign went down because of Sandy.

So, SS Daughter takes her parents political views a little too personally and tries to deny them the right to show their support of their candidate because she doesn't like it.

Logged

"The test of good manners is to be patient with bad ones" - Solomon ibn Gabirol

Did anyone see The Office episode where Dwight thought that a Silent Auction was "whoever guesses the best price match wins the item."?So he called the stores and got the prices, and "won" every item. There was little to no follow up on how he paid several thousand dollars, nor what he did with all the items and services...

The grandma could always offer to buy it off the winning bidder for a higher price, or at least give her number in case some parts were missing, and she was willing to pay for shipping and orders and repairs.

Oh well...

Live auction, who would not realize that you have to be there to bid and win?!?

Similar scenario was depicted about a decade ago on Friends - Joey thinks it's the "best guess" that wins at the Silent Auction at a charity event, and ends up buying an expensive boat he can't afford. So the not understanding a silent auction process gag seems to be a recurring one!

But yep, a regular live auction? I'd feel a bit silly if I missed the item I had my heart set on, but I certainly wouldn't make a fuss and suggest they should resell it to me instead of the actual successful buyer. That's pretty funny.

I bought some yarn for a rug today, and I think this SS might have thought I was the one being SS. A lady was standing kind of close, so I asked her if I was in her way. She said no, so I continued to stand where I was as I decided what colors I wanted. I took the last skein of one particular color, and as I was walking away I heard her grumble, "Of course, she would take the last one..."

Well, how was I supposed to know she wanted that particular color? I had asked if she needed me to move, and she said no. If she'd said, "Excuse me," and taken the skein before I thought to take it myself, I wouldn't have cared. I would have just picked a different one.

Right. That's what reasonable people do. I looked at a piece of hand-dyed fabric at a quilt show once, went off to think about it, and when I went back it was gone. An SS would have thrown a fit that SHE wanted that fabric and they should have known it and saved it for her. I just scolded myself for snoozing and losing.

I was once present at an auction of a former university. There were more than one auctioneer, and they were working in separate rooms (otherwise the noise would be horrendous!). Each room had dozens, if not hundreds, of items to be auctioned, so they were moving slowly from room to room. Their clerks could tell you where the auctioneers were at any given moment, and where each team would head next, so you could go for a break,One of the items up for sale was a loom. It was disassembled. Several other weavers and I went to the room it was in, as the auction team was approaching, to examine it and decide about bidding. I looked it over, and concluded that since I wasn't sure all the parts were there, and it wasn't a 'famous maker' brand, there was too much of a risk that I'd end up with missing parts that I couldn't buy replacements for. I told the other weavers that I'd decided not to bid for that reason. A couple agreed with me, and one gave me a Mona Lisa smile. I figured more power to her, if she knew how to get that loom into proper weaving condition, so to show that I wasn't just trying to game her, I walked off before the auction team got there.At least a half-hour later, I was in line to pay for the auctions I'd won, and a woman came racing up. They had to void the sale on the loom! She'd left and they sold it while she wasn't looking! She'd promised her granddaughter that she'd buy that loom for her! The auction clerks told her that once the gavel falls, the sales are final, and the buyer had already paid for it, so there was no chance that she wouldn't pick it up and they'd re-sell it as abandoned. The SS Grandmother continued to shout, as the rest of us in the lines started to snicker. Seriously, who doesn't know that you have to be there when the item you want is being sold?

Some extremely SS behavior I've seen at auctions/conventions over the years:

- My MIL went to a quilting convention with her quilters group. There's a silent auction and one of the women in her group (known for other SS behaviors) sees an item that she wants, puts a bid on the sheet and then hovers (literally hunching her body over the bid sheet) over it so other people can't bid. When people try to put a bid down, she barks that this item IS HERS and she doesn't want to pay any more than what she has already bid, so they just need to back off. Her behavior became scuttlebutt at the convention. My MIL was mortified.

- A woman at a standard auction who glared at anyone who bid on an item she was interested in, and mutter insults under her breath. When a woman outbid her for a beautiful big Christmas wreath, the glaring woman approached her at the collection table and said, "I hope you're happy with the wreath you STOLE from me."

- A woman at a convention who went from vendor table to table begging for items for free, because she had six kids at home, scrimped and saved so she could come to the convention, and spent all of her money on travel expenses so she couldn't afford to buy books and novelties.

-A woman at a comic convention who got upset when a guy bought some sort of superhero figurine that her 12-13 year old son wanted. And screamed that comic books are for CHILDREN not adults, and what was wrong with this man to go around stealing toys from children? She was eventually kicked out of the convention.- A different woman at the same convention who from vendor table to table begging for free items because she was going to auction them off for such and such worthy cause. And when people declined to donate, she pitched a fit, "Don't you CARE about WORTHY CAUSE?" embarrassing the vendors until they donated. And when the convention organizers objected and asked her to stop, she pitched an even bigger fit.

I'd be extremely tempted to say, "Very much so, thank you. X3" I honestly don't know what I would have said, though. I tend to get defensive and stand-offish when confronted in such a hostile manner (which has only happened a couple times), and my responses probably weren't as polite as they could have been.

-A woman at a comic convention who got upset when a guy bought some sort of superhero figurine that her 12-13 year old son wanted. And screamed that comic books are for CHILDREN not adults, and what was wrong with this man to go around stealing toys from children? She was eventually kicked out of the convention.

EvilTraska wants to introduce this woman's children to the Marvel "MAX" imprint. Or even DC's "Vertigo".

-A woman at a comic convention who got upset when a guy bought some sort of superhero figurine that her 12-13 year old son wanted. And screamed that comic books are for CHILDREN not adults, and what was wrong with this man to go around stealing toys from children? She was eventually kicked out of the convention.

EvilTraska wants to introduce this woman's children to the Marvel "MAX" imprint. Or even DC's "Vertigo".

I think it was more about shaming the guy into giving up the figurine.

-A woman at a comic convention who got upset when a guy bought some sort of superhero figurine that her 12-13 year old son wanted. And screamed that comic books are for CHILDREN not adults, and what was wrong with this man to go around stealing toys from children? She was eventually kicked out of the convention.

EvilTraska wants to introduce this woman's children to the Marvel "MAX" imprint. Or even DC's "Vertigo".

I think it was more about shaming the guy into giving up the figurine.

O.o What comic books is she reading? Also, considering some of those figurines... the price, the detail, and the anatomic correctness... Please tell me it was Emma Frost or Witchblade

-A woman at a comic convention who got upset when a guy bought some sort of superhero figurine that her 12-13 year old son wanted. And screamed that comic books are for CHILDREN not adults, and what was wrong with this man to go around stealing toys from children? She was eventually kicked out of the convention.

EvilTraska wants to introduce this woman's children to the Marvel "MAX" imprint. Or even DC's "Vertigo".

I think it was more about shaming the guy into giving up the figurine.

Just saying that anyone who thinks comic books are just for children has never taken a look at the comic book industry.

-A woman at a comic convention who got upset when a guy bought some sort of superhero figurine that her 12-13 year old son wanted. And screamed that comic books are for CHILDREN not adults, and what was wrong with this man to go around stealing toys from children? She was eventually kicked out of the convention.

Seriously?? If she knew anything about the artform she'd know better. And I challenge her to look up Spain Rodriguez' work. So not appropriate for nor aimed at kids.

-A woman at a comic convention who got upset when a guy bought some sort of superhero figurine that her 12-13 year old son wanted. And screamed that comic books are for CHILDREN not adults, and what was wrong with this man to go around stealing toys from children? She was eventually kicked out of the convention.

EvilTraska wants to introduce this woman's children to the Marvel "MAX" imprint. Or even DC's "Vertigo".

Heck, introduce her to the vast majority of the fans who attend any comics convention. Comics haven't been primarily a kids thing for a very long time. I think that's one of many reasons they're nowhere near as popular as they used to be.

-A woman at a comic convention who got upset when a guy bought some sort of superhero figurine that her 12-13 year old son wanted. And screamed that comic books are for CHILDREN not adults, and what was wrong with this man to go around stealing toys from children? She was eventually kicked out of the convention.

EvilTraska wants to introduce this woman's children to the Marvel "MAX" imprint. Or even DC's "Vertigo".

Heck, introduce her to the vast majority of the fans who attend any comics convention. Comics haven't been primarily a kids thing for a very long time. I think that's one of many reasons they're nowhere near as popular as they used to be.

Heck, introduce her to the vast majority of the fans who attend any comics convention. Comics haven't been primarily a kids thing for a very long time. I think that's one of many reasons they're nowhere near as popular as they used to be.

I disagree, I think it's the only thing keeping them alive.

I agree that the current older fans are all they have going for them, but it's more life support than truly "alive" compared to the heyday of comic books. There are a lot of very important reasons comics have gone downhill - the prevalence of many, many newer competing forms of entertainment is probably the biggest - but I think relying on mostly adult fans is a big problem, too. Most of the people who are still comic fans got hooked when they were kids, and they're still into them. Not as many kids are bothering with comics now, though, so where will the future fans come from? I don't think enough new adult fans are coming into the hobby to keep it going indefinitely.

It's been several years since my finger was located anywhere even remotely near the pulse of the comics industry, though, so maybe I'm wrong. We can but hope.